the results

Well, I know that you were eagerly awaiting the results from my gestational diabetes test and here they are....

I am...

NORMAL :) :) No Gest. Diabetes for me!!! :) The nurse totally made my day when she came back with the results. I had been worried about that one for a while, but it looks like it wasn't meant for me! Thank G-ddess, thats all I can really say. It would have been quite a psychological hurdle to have to draw my blood multiple times a day while in the last trimester of my pregnancy. As it is I am already starting to feel achy in certain parts of my lower belly as the baby gets bigger- and I know I will only get bigger from here!

I am now 24 weeks, 5 days and 25 weeks is just around the corner. I have trouble bending over to pick something up from the ground, have an achy lower right side of my belly.. I mostly suspect that from growth AND bending over alot when I was moving.. And thats another thing-

I have moved to Atlanta to be w/my family for these last couple of months and beginning of baby and thus far its been good. They are literally doing all the heavy lifting and I get to just sit and be uncomfy and bear it all. But, no, its a good thing- I def. think this was a wise decision for me and baby. Also G-d willing there will be a bris in which alot of my family who already lives here won't have far to drive to attend it.

But I can't believe I will hit my 3rd trimester in 16 days. My 3rd trimester. Then my son comes (g-d willing again of course). My son.. and thats it. I'm a parent. A mama. Forever and always till death do us part. And I will always be a Jewish mama! I guess in someways that is what I was destined to be along with an political historian. But there are so many doubts on the way to parenthood, but I think in the end, its all about raising the child in the best way you can possible. I don't think its about the money or the fancy this and that, its about being there when your child needs you- because thats the greatest contribution you can give to the world and of course your greatest legacy. Of course I say this all pre-screaming baby :) But I think those are my feelings for now.

And thank g-ddess no more blood testing for pregnancy until around 35 weeks when I think they do the Group B Strep test. I believe that determines if you need special meds while delivering (which is really the biggest prenatal test of all!).

:) ~24w,5d

Baby stuff!

So I had a super fun baby day today! At my synagogue they gave me a goodbye cake and got me these cute little things- a photo album, a photo frame and a really cute burlap giraffe height chart thing. Then I went to dinner with some awesome grad school friends (yay Ashley and Eric!) and they got me a highchair/booster and a Winnie the Pooh boy's outfit!! Tres cute!



I love it! The great thing about it is that it's portable and will eventually convert to a booster seat! Thanks again! :) :)

Pic

Here's my latest belly pic- well from about 3 days ago.. So I would say 23 weeks and 5 days at this point:

Test over

So I took the gestational diabetes test today. I had kinda psyched myself up, then relaxed myself about it. I slept late today, I ate all proteins and basically very low sugars, got to my appt early and took the test. I had to drink this super sugary fruit punch that had a bad aftertaste in about 5 minutes, then I had to wait an hour then they took a bit of blood. Then I did my blood pressure and it was the lowest its ever been!!!! 118/80! I was like "no way!" But way. So I had a major sugar crash like an hour or two later and I was like "must eat solid foods now." And I did. And then all was well. I get the results tomorrow or Monday!

~24w today!

Gest. Diabetes

So this Thursday I have my Glucose testing done to see if I have gestational diabetes... Its a 1 hr test in which you have to drink some sugary suggarryyy drink and then wait an hour and have a blood test, then they tell you a day or two later if you need to come back for a more intensive 3 hr test. Then I am going to have a final check-over with this OB and I will let everyone know how it goes!!

~23weeks, 5 days!

note

Well as I approach the 6th month mark in 5 days, I am just very content. I am still very much vibing off this preggerness thing. So today for the first time I was compiling some important documents for my son, and I wrote him a little note. It was more of an insurance type of thing for me, if I am not able to be there when he needs this information- he will have it. And I spoke to my soon to be born son and I left him a bit of our legacy and it was really beautiful.

Being a mother of a son who was conceived via donor insemination presents a set of challenges and rewards in general. And I was given what I believe was a bit of a reward today. I know that my child has 2 half-brothers somewhere in America who were conceived via the same donor. And one of them is 2 1/2 yrs old and the mother emailed me and said that he is a happy boy with a good sense of humor. So that was nice to hear, as I believe I have a good sense of humor and hopefully this child will as well. So as pregnancy is long, its good to get those little 'billboards' along the journey telling you whats coming up.. and I did!!

So I got to hear about the temperment of his half-brother AND I wrote him a note.. all in all a good day.

:) :) :) ~23weeks and 2days preggers

my 1yr anni

So 1 yr ago today, I took my first steps into the fertility office that gave me this preggerness. I had a meeting with the doctor, then the nurse, and was told all the steps I would need to go through in order to get pregnant. This is what I wanted, and I was going to do what was necessary to get there. I had do initial bloodwork, meet with a counselor (required of all patients using a fertility doctor), start monitoring my cycles, and other technical stuff. So 1 yr ago today I started my journey, and here I am 23 weeks pregnant with a baby boy. I have to tell you other than a turbulent first trimester, its gone rather smoothly. It did take me a couple of months to get pregnant, but looking back it was hard and it made me doubt myself at point and the 2 week wait is horrible! But in the end I think makes you appreciate your pregnancy even more.

Pregnancy is like this fragile existence. Anything can disrupt it- so you just lay low, don't overexert yourself to much and try to ride it out doing the best you can and still surviving. I am moving in about a week and a half and thats going to take alot of physical energy. I am doing my best to all the prepwork for it, so that the actual day of the move, it won't be so stressful. And having my mama come on Monday will help get everything ready to go and packed up. But my main goal in all of that is just to breathe, take care of my pets and do the best thing I can for my baby... Better to move in the 2nd trimester, then the 3rd- for sure!

Since actual pregnancy is a small part of a womyn's life, I do want to savor these moments. Drink up the sweetness, breathe in the realities, and just happily exist. I have def. been feeling more movement down there.. But it's not consistent yet.. I will get great spurts from him and feel him moving all over, then like nothing for a day or two, then movement again- my guess is that as he gets bigger I will feel him more.. As my natural padding is buffering some of his kicks..

But yay- tis it for now- Happy 1 yr anni to me! :)

22 weeks, 5 days

On Thursday (g-d willing), I will enter into my 23rd week of pregnancy. And seeing how the 2nd trimester is only 27 weeks I will have begun my initial descent into 3rd trimester. Pregnancy is a long, wonderous experience and will I have just reached the peak of the pregnancy and begun to work my way down, I find it humbling, awe-inspiring and currently- a bit normal. The turbulent first trimester brings hormones, body changes, confusion, tiredness, sometimes sickness, and a strong faith that everything will work out. The 2nd trimester brings somewhat of a cruise control of pregnancy- you sit back, hope that everything maintains course, you feel like your oldself again and start seeing some life happening in your body...

What the 3rd will bring- who knows? I have yet to experience that joy and miracle. In the last 48 hours I have begun to feel some major movement, my bebe was breech but I feel that he isnt any longer.. There was a ton of movement going on last night this morning and I don't feel the same hard bump at the top anymore.. perhaps he has moved??

So here is a pic from 22 weeks from babycenter.com- just so everyone knows what the bebe looks like now (g-d willing):

Gifts

Awww, so in the last 24 hrs I have started to get baby presents!! Yesterday I went to Shabbat dinner at this family I babysat for and they gave me their gently used infant car seat (1 needs 2 carseats- 1 for infants, then 1 for older babies/toddlers), lots of little boy clothes and 1 brand new baby outfit (soooo cute!). Then today at shul I got some gender neutral clothes, plus Rachel HS (;)) sent me my first baby registry gift!! awww- thanks Rach! It's a baby carrier- so baby can snuggle up close to you while you are grocery shopping :)

It kinda looks like this:


Then Rachel got me this:




Tress tresss cute! Yay bebe :)

Eating and months

First I would like to address the eating alot thing as a pregnant womyn. If I go more than 2 hours w/out food or a drink, I start starving. I don't know if this is partially what I think I am supposed to feel or it is actually what I feel. I need to eat multiple large quantities of various food- stuff and then in btwn small quantities of food to keep up with myself. I was up late last night watching the California poll numbers come in and it just hit me that I was starving. I feel like I am one of those pregnant ladies you see on those TV commercials raiding the kitchen in the middle of the night. It was really interesting.

So tomorrow I am 22 weeks aka 5 1/2 months pregnant!!!! I went to my OB appt today and feel like an old hand at this. I know the procedure etc. I have to take my glucose test in about 2 weeks and have a final "everything" checkover with this OB before I move on to a new one. I am not sure what she is gonna check out, but I guess better to be safe than sorry- by that point I will be 24 weeks aka 6 months pregnant. I asked her about tests after that and she said well I guess the next big stuff is around 35 weeks and beyond. I was like "wow 35 weeks.. thats 5 weeks before you are due!" And even though thats 3 months away, I realized time is a flyin'. I feel like I am still back in the beginning of pregnancy and wondering about home pregnancy tests and blood betas and etc... and here I am discussing the end of pregnancy.

I love being pregnant. I can say this now as I am in the "honeymoon" stage of pregnancy- the 2nd trimester. Hormones have evened out, I'm not to big yet, I can still function quite normally and I walk around with my hand atop my hardening belly.. I can see why womyn want to do this more than once :) But I am glad that I went today and hopefully will get through the hurdle of the glucose test and will move beyond all that...

:)

21 weeks, 6 days with a bebe boy :)

From the mouth of babes

Well there was alot of meaningless chatter at one of the synagogues I work at on how I would tell my students I was pregnant. They weren't okay when they found out I was pregnant without a husband/boyfriend b/c they thought it was a one night stand- BUT when they found out I was a Single Mother by Choice, they suddenly bowed down and were like "anything we can do for you- its yours!"- not really, but a sudden change of thought.

So I had to prepare a special email that was attached to a principal's email, and it was sent to the parents... Fast forward to today when I told my students.. Ready?

"I just want to tell you that I am pregnant with a baby boy..." I go on to talk about how I am leaving and there will be a new teacher, etc, etc... So what questions was I peppered with??? Ones about the birds and the bees? Being without a husband?

No :) Here are the questions I got verbatim:

1) When a chicken lays an egg, does it have to go to the hospital?
2) What happens when a chicken is sick- where does it go?

Mind you I didn't mention either chickens or being sick :)

So allll the meaningless worry was for not! I was like "hmm, we aren't talking about chickens right now." ;) It was fun... it was really cute actually.

Right place, right time

Well I found myself in a very interesting position this morning. But before I tell you that, let me back up a little- ever since I found out I was having a boy (a little over a week ago), I have been asking boys of all ages, some random, some not about the things they liked to do as a little boy... All really in an attempt to understand these little fetus that is growing so rapidly in my body. So this morning after a week of introspection and talking to various people and getting a better idea.. I find myself teaching 4 boys at Junior Congregation this morning all ranging from 5-7- my target audience! These boys are still in the polite stages, not to crazy, haven't fully grasped their independence yet and still love their mamas. So we had about 15 minutes left of class and they were playing legos and I said "sooo I am having a boy, and I want suggestions of what fun things you guys do at home when you aren't watching TV." And I got some great suggestions.

I got book titles, boy scouts recommendations, car racing events, legos/building, etc..Most of it I had a pretty good idea, but it was nice to see actual boys and what they enjoy doing.. Even though boy scouts has a thing against gay people, I feel like its the military thing "Dont ask, don't tell" and while I am not ready to wrestle with those politics, I want my son to learn some good survival skills in an open-air environment. And depending upon where I live there might even be a Jewish Boy Scouts group, so that would be even better!

Since there will be no TV in my house, we are going to have to work hard to come up with alternatives that fun, safe, interactive, engaging, etc.

The way I process life is that there is an idea presented to me, I rebel, then when I have had enough time to process it on my own I accept it and work to get whatever it is. So having said that.. Here's a belly shot!! I took it w/my cellphone.. and its kinda hard to see but here it is :)